Tim Grobaty: Headlines decrying gun violence have a long, sad history

OBAMALAW: "Gun Control Laws Rushed," ran a somewhat small headline on the front page of the Press-Telegram. Another headline, same size, same page: "Violence Study Ordered." And the topper, same day - huge, all caps: "KENNEDY DIES OF ASSASSIN'S BULLETS."

That was Robert Kennedy, who was killed in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968, almost 45 years ago.

Since then, what's happened? Gun ownership has gone absolutely nuts, for one thing. Weapons have become crazily sophisticated way beyond reason, save for military and law enforcement purposes, and those weapons have become as readily and easily available as a trip down to the U-Shoot-Em Outdoor Gun Show & Go-Kart Track. Or, if that's too rigorous, you can just find your weapon and high-capacity magazine of choice on the Internet and click on "Add to Cart."

Gun control has been largely ineffective, thanks to the bellicose direction the National Rifle Association began taking shortly after RFK's assassination when it turned into the most dangerous lobby in the country, going on a spree belligerently shooting down even the most common-sense gun-control ideas, declaring the "slippery slope" of sane control and regulation as the inexorable route to eradication of all weapons and the dismantling of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

There are more than a few gun nuts in the country today who are almost giddy over the specter of a civil war - seriously, we get letters from them - pitting the quasi-patriotic forces of those whose idea of the greatness of this country lies in the easy availability of assault rifles and 30-bullet clips and the right to possess them, against the dark forces of Barack Obama who, before he even took his first oath of office as president, has presumably planned to disarm the citizenry of this country and then run roughshod over the balance of the Constitution. You can add your own villainous "Bwaa! Hahaha!" laughter here.

It takes courage to step up and speak out against pro-gun advocates, and we're impressed that Obama and our beloved Vice President Joe Biden are more than serious in this latest attempt to regulate weaponry gone amok, and we're heartened particularly by their efforts to close the Internet loophole, to limit magazine capacity and to ban assault weapons.

Remarkably, among the many, many things the NRA hates is violence studies that take place outside its vast sphere of influence.

Decades ago, in the 1980s and into the '90s, the Centers for Disease Control regularly studied gun violence and conducted research into such issues as the efficacy of guns in homes for personal protection. In fact, studies found that homicide rates increased with the presence of guns in the home and suicide levels were five times higher in homes with guns.

Those sorts of studies were killed by the NRA in 1996, when the association bullied members of Congress into blocking such further studies because the NRA was concerned that the federal funding that paid for such studies was going toward matters of gun control and, attacking, sigh, the Second Amendment.

Now, Obama, has directed the CDC and other scientific agencies to once again research the causes and prevention of gun violence. He is asking Congress to provide $10 million to fund the studies.

Today, many gun enthusiasts, and certainly the NRA, make us feel like sitting ducks in our homes, increasing the level of irrational fear. Nor are we to be content to be terrified over merely one armed guy wearing a striped shirt, a watch cap and a raccoon mask coming into our homes, a guy who would scamper off at the sight of a handgun wielded by the occupant, but we're to be concerned about eight or 10 intruders, all armed with assault rifles. You want peace of mind? You won't find it with your silly little six- or 10-shot magazine. If you want to stay alive in this world, you need something that can take out entire gangs of assassins.

So, how's that whole hope and change thing working out for us?

Pretty good as far as the president and the vice president go; still a little shaky on Congress, which hasn't done much in the way of the correct thing since Obama was elected. We're taking a little of our hope surplus and using it toward Congress doing something that should have been done a long time ago: passing the laws necessary to at least impede the idiocy of a runaway culture of killing.